Sprint Nextel Corp. hopes to clean up the direct-to-consumer content business by hitting wayward partners where it hurts.The carrier last month told off-deck content aggregators that it will be "strictly enforcing" new revenue-share penalties for vendors who violate Mobile Marketing Association guidelines. Partners who...
Five years after 50 Cent's "In Da Club" helped launch the multibillion-dollar ringtone phenomenon - and as CD sales continue to plummet - the music industry continues to look for its second hit in mobile. We talked to Sean Rosenberg, director of mobile marketing...
LAS VEGAS - "There is an expression - if there is something that people want to watch, you can broadcast it on a rock in the desert and they will watch it," Frank Nein, co-founder, partner and senior VP at Lexicon Digital Communications, said...
Radio Disney is partnering with sister company mDisney on a mobile Web site and texting program to support the offering.The new wireless site allows users with Web-enabled phones to hear Radio Disney broadcasts, find local stations, request tunes and participate in polls from their...
A class-action lawsuit filed against Alltel Corp. accuses the regional mobile-phone carrier of adding unauthorized charges on subscribers' monthly bills.The suit focuses on the relationships between Alltel and third-party mobile content providers and billing aggregators such as m-Qube Inc., a unit of VeriSign Inc."Alltel...
LAS VEGAS -- Five companies promoting the A-VSB standard for mobile TV broadcasting said they have made progress on the technology, and offered demonstrations during the National Association of Broadcasters Show this week to underscore their efforts.The Advanced Television Systems Committee is expected to...
One year after launching Mowser, Russell Beattie has pulled the plug on his transcoding business.Beattie, a former mobile developer for Yahoo Inc., had hoped to compete with Google Inc., Greenlight Wireless's Skweezer and other developers that customize Internet content for mobile phones. But "active...
Public-interest groups reiterated their call for federal regulators to protect text messaging rights, framing the issue with far-reaching implication for free speech, disability access and competition in the wireless industry.Public Knowledge and other organizations want the Federal Communications Commission to rule that mobile-phone carriers...
Crush or Flush members can now give advertisers a thumbs-up or thumbs-down -- just like they do with each other.IceBreaker Inc's mobile social networking site added Golden Ticket, a component that allows advertisers to create profiles for their wares, just as members create profiles...
Editor's Note: Welcome to On the Margins, a feature for RCR Wireless News' weekly e-mail service, Mobile Content and Culture. Every week, the RCR Wireless News staff considers events in the wider business world and how they could affect the wireless industry.--Delta Air Lines...
Editor's Note: Welcome to Yay or Nay, a feature for RCR Wireless News' weekly e-mail service, Mobile Content and Culture. Every week we'll review a new wireless application or service from the user's point of view, with the goal of highlighting what works and...
Verizon Wireless has tapped AOL L.L.C.'s Platform-A as a "major advertising provider" of its online and mobile Internet destinations.The operator said it will use Platform-A's sales force as well as its technology to deliver display, mobile and video ad services. The deal grants Platform-A...
MobiTV Inc. has spent the past 18 months developing new technologies that will speed up the time between channel changes to less than a second and optimize cellular network backhaul by automatically switching video streams from unicast to multicast depending on usage in a...
LAS VEGAS--Sun Microsystems today announced an expansion of its Streaming System video portfolio, adding small to mid-scale streaming of television and IP-based video to create an IPTV that can scale from 100 to 160,000 simultaneous streams.
To hear Cyriac Roeding tell it, CBS Mobile started in 2005 as a "department of one." Just two suitcases and three boxes in tow, Roeding left his home in Europe after convincing top executives to let him build a new mobile business out of...
With so many smart people in the wireless industry, how can there be so many problems with mobile content?At CTIA Wireless 2008, I had the privilege of moderating a panel on mobile content sales, and had the luxury of interviewing six wireless gurus,...
It seems there's no shortage of players looking to help carriers compile all the customer information that can be gleaned from their networks. But it appears network operators are still at a loss at what to do with the stuff.VeriSign Inc. last week spun...
Mark Louison's unassuming manner dovetails well with Nokia Corp.'s efforts to project a kinder, gentler approach to the North American device market, an effort he has led for the past year."Alignment" with carrier needs is a term oft-repeated by handset vendors in discussing the...
Attendees heard plenty at the recent CTIA Wireless 2008 event about all the sexy things in the mobile space including music, video and, of course, mobile advertising. But the quiet world of wireless donations may be about to make some noise.Nonprofit agencies have long...
ICO Global Communications Holdings' half billion-dollar gamble leaves the launching pad this week.The Reston, Va.-based firm is slated to launch its $500 million satellite into space Monday, setting the stage for the nation's first space-to-mobile multimedia service. The three-pronged offering is expected to deliver...
High-end phones with Web-based features will drive explosive growth in the mobile browser market over the next few years, according to new figures from ABI Research.The market research firm predicted the open-Internet browser (OIB) space for mobile will explode from 76 million browsers delivered...
Pepsi-Cola has tapped Hong Kong's MyClick Media to handle the mobile extension of a cross-platform marketing campaign targeting young consumers in China. The contest encourages users to upload photos as well as personal information such as name and mobile number to one of six...
Hello! And welcome to our column, Worst of the Week. There's a lot of nutty stuff that goes on in this industry, so this column is a chance for us at RCRWirelessNews.com to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way. We...
HipCricket unveiled a "comprehensive Hispanic mobile marketing network" in an effort to reach the lucrative market.The Seattle-area startup hopes to give marketers and media buyers a way to tap a broad audience of Hispanic mobile users with a single buy. Advertisers can customize their...
